Instant Pot Beef Stew

$11.91 recipe / $1.99 serving

While checking the sale flyers for my grocery stores last week I noticed that Whole Foods had beef stew meat on sale for $3.99/lb. and I was ALL OVER that. I was finally able to swing by yesterday, the last day of the sale, and pick up some of the beef, along with all the other ingredients to make this Instant Pot Beef Stew.

My Slow Cooker Rosemary Garlic Beef Stew is pretty hard to beat, but I wanted to try making a stew in my Instant Pot because A) it’s a lot faster and B) I can do all the steps, including browning the beef, in one pot which means a lot less dishes to clean. YAY! Ever since the Instant Pot took the cooking world by storm there have been several other multi-cookers to hit the market. You don’t have to use an Instant Pot for this. You can use any other cooker that has both a sauté and a pressure cooking feature, or just use a plain old pressure cooker and do the browning through deglazing steps in a skillet before transfering everything to the pressure cooker. OR if you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can use a slow cooker just as I did for my Slow Cooker Rosemary Garlic Beef Stew.

This recipe starts similarly to the Rosemary Garlic Beef Stew, but I played around with the vegetable mix, using less potatoes and adding in mushrooms and pearl onions. I also skipped the Dijon and added just a little tomato paste for a more traditional beef stew flavor. This Instant Pot Beef Stew turned out so tender and amazing that my boyfriend said, “Is this healthy? Because I could this every day.” Noted! :)

Instant Pot Beef Stew

Instant Pot Beef Stew

This Instant Pot Beef Stew is incredibly fast and easy, but is packed with slow-cooked flavor.

Total Cost
$11.91 recipe / $1.99 serving

Prep Time15minutes

Cook Time1hour

Total Time1hour15minutes

Servings6(10 cups total)

Ingredients

1lbbeef stew meat (cubed)$3.99

Salt and pepper $0.05

2Tbspflour $0.02

2Tbspbutter $0.22

2cupsbeef broth* $0.26

1TbspWorcestershire sauce $0.06

1Tbspsoy sauce $0.10

1/2Tbspbrown sugar$0.02

2clovesgarlic, minced $0.16

2Tbsptomato paste $0.13

1tspdried rosemary $0.10

1tspdried thyme $0.10

14 ozbagfrozen pearl onions $2.97

8ozmushrooms $1.90

1lbcarrots $0.99

0.75lbpotatoes $0.84

Instructions

Place the stew meat in a bowl and season lightly with salt and pepper. Add the flour and stir to coat.

Place the butter in the Instant Pot and turn on the sauté function. Heat the butter until it is melted and sizzling, then add the stew meat. Brown the meat on all sides. Don't stir too often as this will prevent the meat from achieving a nice brown, crispy exterior. The flour may coat the bottom of the pot and that is okay, just don't let it burn.

Pour the beef broth into the pot and stir to dissolve the browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Once dissolved, add the Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, minced garlic, tomato paste, rosemary, and thyme.

Wash and quarter the mushrooms. Peel and slice the carrots into one-inch sections. Wash the potatoes well, peel if desired, then chop into one-inch cubes. Add the pearl onions (no need to thaw), mushrooms, carrots, and potatoes to the Instant Pot. Give all the ingredients in the pot a good stir.

Close the lid on the Instant Pot and close the steam valve. Press the "meat/stew" button, or set the cooker to 35 minutes of high pressure. After 35 minutes of high pressure, allow the cooker to naturally cool and release pressure.

Once the pressure has released, open the steam valve then carefully open the lid. Give the stew a good stir, taste, and adjust the salt if needed. Serve hot with crusty bread.

Recipe Notes

*I use Better Than Bouillon to make my broth. If using a different type of broth you may need to adjust the salt in the stew after cooking.

Step by Step Photos

Place one pound of stew meat in a bowl and season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Add 2 Tbsp flour and stir until the meat is coated in the flour.

Add 2 Tbsp butter to the Instant Pot and turn on the sauté function. Heat the butter until it is melted and sizzling, then add the stew meat (and any leftover flour from the bowl). Brown the meat on all sides. Be sure not to stir the meat too often because this can prevent it from forming a nice brown crust. You do not need to cook the beef pieces completely through at this point. Just get a nice brown color on the outside.

Wash and quarter the mushrooms. Peel and slice the carrots into one-inch sections. Wash the potatoes well, then cut into one-inch cubes. Add the frozen pearl onions, mushrooms, carrots, and potatoes to the pot. I totally forgot to get a photo of the pearl onions for anyone who is unfamiliar, but here is a link to the pearl onions that I bought. They are small, sweet onions about the size of large grapes.

Close the lid on the Instant Pot, close the steam valve, then press the “meat/stew” button. This will set the cooker to 35 minutes of high pressure. It takes about 10-15 minutes to get up to pressure, then natural pressure release will take another 15 minutes or so. (Yes, I did paint that “5” on this photo because apparently the numbers on the display flicker at a speed faster than our eyes can see, but slower than my camera shutter. :P )

After the pressure naturally releases, open the steam valve then carefully open the lid. This is what you’ll see. Give it a good stir.

And then it will look more like beef stew! It may seem a bit watery at first, but as the temperature comes down from “molten” to just “really hot” it will thicken a bit. It’s always a good idea to give the stew a final taste and adjust the salt if needed.

And that’s how easy it is to make Instant Pot Beef Stew (or any other multi-cooker beef stew). I highly recommend a good crusty bread to go along with it. I added a touch of parsley for color, but the flavor of the stew is just fine on its own.

230 comments on “Instant Pot Beef Stew”

I’m new to the Instant Pot game and only purchased one about three weeks ago. Love it! Anyhow, this recipe was a HUGE hit. I’m vegetarian but made this for my non-vegetarian husband last night. He LOVED it. I rely on him to be taste tester and adjust seasoning at the end – and he said it was perfect as is/no adjustments needed. I did follow your tip and made the broth from Better than Bouillon. Thanks so much for such a fab recipe!

This is a household staple! Hands down fav IP recipe. Super yummy with yams. Question. I want to make it for my birth team post baby at my home birth coming up soon. They request a hearty meal. This fits that! Could I freeze it after coming, and how would I go about about reheating? I need something I can prep ahead of time and freeze… that’s simple for someone to dump in and press a button. Not to cook on the spot, because we can’t predict birth… and my b husband can’t cook ;)

You can freeze and reheat this, but keep in mind that the vegetables will break down a bit more and the stew will get thicker. If that’s okay with you, you’ll probably enjoy it. :) I would suggest freezing in single serving portions for easy reheating. You can either reheat in the microwave or in a pot on the stove (over medium low, stirring often).

Hi! I’m Beth

As a food lover and a number cruncher I've decided that cooking on a budget shouldn't mean canned beans and ramen noodles night after night. Join me for delicious recipes designed for small budgets. More »